A Car For Donation – The Least You Can Do

About A Car For Donation – The Least You Can Do: Charity organizations say that the donations that they’re receiving are in decline just as the need for their services are on the rise to what may be the greatest level of our lifetimes. Car For Donation In this economy, many of us are in little position to help. But there is at least one thing that many of us can do. Most of us will ever need to replace our cars, and when that time comes, we can offer our old car as a donation to charity.

Plenty of people are already offering their car for donation. There were 311,451 pledges of vehicles in 2005 worth an average of $ 1,508 each, according to the IRS.

Offering a car for donation is usually a pretty easy thing to do. Most of the programs that handle car donors will tow your car away for free. In general, they will accept cars that are not running or that can not pass state emission standards.

There is a tax deduction available for offering your car for donation. If you’ve done this before, though, you should be aware that the tax rules are now not as generous as they have been in the past.

Prior to 2005, the available tax deduction was equal to the fair market value of the car offered for donation.
Now, you are usually only able to deduct the fair market value if the car is worth less than $ 500.

A charity or the company that runs its car donation program will often resell the cars they receive. Under current tax law, you can only deduct an amount equal to the resale price, unless the car is worth less than $ 500.

Be sure that your charity provides you with written documentation of the sale. Charities are required to provide documentation within 30 days.

A couple of other things to be aware of if you offer your car for donation:

In most states, it’s the donor’s responsibility to notify their state’s department of motor vehicles of the change in registration after donating their car. Do not forget to do this. If you fail to notify the DMV of the change in ownership, you could be charged for parking tickets and other penalties for violations committed by your car’s next owner.

Summary:

Also, in deciding what charity to donate to, you may want to ask some questions about their vehicle-donation programs. The California Attorney General’s Office found in a 2005 that in 2004, less than half of the proceeds raised through charitable contributions of vehicles in California ended up going to charities. The rest went to the commercial fundraisers that charities contracted with to manage their vehicle donation programs.